"Even when he's covered, he's not covered," Harbaugh said. "He's athletic enough to make those catches."

A good example of that came in Saturday's Arizona game. Toilolo was closely covered by 6-foot linebacker Jake Fischer, but as Fischer kept his eyes on Toilolo, the Stanford tight end put both arms over Fischer and made a remarkable catch for a 22-yard pickup.

That's what happens when you're 6 feet 8, 265 pounds and you have exceptional athleticism, agility and hands. Toilolo has become a major target for quarterback Josh Nunes, and they'll try, probably repeatedly, to connect again Saturday at Notre Dame.

Toilolo is coming off one of the best games of his Stanford career. The redshirt junior caught five passes for a career-high 141 yards against the Wildcats, including a 12-yard touchdown catch and a 46-yard catch-and-run play.

Told he's becoming one of the team's breakaway threats, he said with a laugh, "I don't know about that. It's always great to catch the ball and be able to run, especially at the tight end position. A lot of times when you catch it, there's a guy on you. That one was an open field, so I got to get yards-after-catch. That's always fun."

In the deep-threat category, he's trying to follow in the shoes of Coby Fleener, who last year caught 10 touchdown passes - the most of any tight end in the country - and posted a 19.6-yards-per-catch average.

Through five games, Toilolo has 13 catches and two touchdowns. His 21.4-yards-per-catch average is even better than Fleener's.

"He's an amazing athlete," offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton said. "He takes pride in playing without the ball. Most 6-8, 260-pound guys are playing power forward. He decided to play football, and he has no problem with fighting in the trenches."

Hamilton admits he was surprised by Toilolo's running ability on the big play against the Wildcats, on which he made the catch and broke across the field.

Mostly, Stanford has tried to capitalize on his height on third-down and goal-line situations. "He gives us an opportunity in the red zone to get a matchup that's going to be in our favor most of the time," Hamilton said.

Raymond Toilolo is associate pastor of the Christian Life Center in San Diego and freshman football coach at Helix High in La Mesa. Levine's older brother, Ray, played safety on a state championship team that had 49ers quarterback Alex Smith and Dolphins running back Reggie Bush.

Raymond, by the way, is 6-3, and his wife, Trina Young-Toilolo, is 5-8. "We don't know where the 6-8 height came from," Raymond said. "It's more of a God thing than a genetic thing."

Three of Raymond's cousins played in the NFL, Dan Saleaumua, Edwin Mulitalo and Joe Salave'a, now defensive line coach at Washington State. The Toilolos are part of a huge extended family of Samoan Americans.

Levine was 6-3 as a high school freshman and kept growing. A foot injury as a senior kept him out of basketball; he took advantage of the extra time to hit the weight room because he wanted to play college football.

His first scholarship offer came from then-Florida coach Urban Meyer, but Stanford's came soon thereafter. He was also recruited by Brian Polian, then an assistant at Notre Dame. Toilolo picked Stanford, and when Polian became Stanford's special-teams coach, he told Toilolo, "I got you anyway."

After redshirting in 2009, Toilolo won the starting job over Fleener and Konrad Reuland in 2010. But he sustained a severe knee injury while making a catch for a 27-yard gain against Sacramento State on Stanford's second scrimmage play of the season. He's been wearing two knee braces ever since.

He came back to make 25 catches and score six TDs last year. Now even greater numbers are within his extraordinary reach.

Briefly: Wide receiver Ty Montgomery, Stanford's second-leading receiver, will miss the Notre Dame game with an undisclosed injury. Senior Jamal-Rashad Patterson will make his first college start in Montgomery's place.